The Aboasi Mine

When I opened my eyes I appeared to be in absolute darkness, and for a moment I could not remember where I was, but on attempting to move my hands, their manacled condition at once recalled me to my situation. A glance upward showed me the dim red glow upon the roof, and when I turned over I looked upon a scene so strange and unreal that it might well have been but part of a dream.

Before I had slept I had seen the cavern as it appeared during the hours of rest; I now saw it in what I supposed to be its ordinary working aspect.

As I looked forth from my alcove I gazed into a formless expanse of gloom, in which shapes of deeper shadow moved to and fro. At what seemed to be the centre of the cavern was a single spot of light, and round this the strange lurid picture was grouped, and from this it gradually faded away on all sides into a black void. This one spot of light was an opening in the floor, and through it there streamed up a bright glow, as if from an underground furnace, which being reflected from the roof, lighted up the floor for several yards around quite brilliantly.

Within the lighted area were several figures, some standing against the light mere silhouettes of black, others with the glow of the furnace falling on them, looking like statues of burnished copper, and all naked, cadaverous and horrible. One man crouched over the mouth of the furnace and probed about it with a pair of tongs; another sat on the floor at a little distance and worked a couple of sheep-skins that served as bellows. A third was filling a broad crucible with some substance that he took from a bowl-shaped calabash; and several were dimly visible in the background washing, by means of similar calabashes, some deposit that they dipped out of copper buckets, while they tipped the water into other vessels.

I could distinguish at intervals the sound of hammering, and looking about for its source, I made out the dim shape of a figure crouching in the shadow of one of the piers, beating out something on a flat stone. Presently he rose and walked over to the furnace with his hammer and a pair of tongs in one hand, and in the other one of those unjoined rings, known as manillas, which the Africans use as standard quantities of metal. He had apparently just finished the manilla, which was of gold, and had come for fresh material.

I watched him with curious interest as he stood in the light of the furnace, a tall, lean, but powerful figure with the tribal marks of the Moshi nation clearly visible on his skeleton face, and wondered how he came into his present condition; for the Moshi are among the most fierce and warlike of the inland tribes, and it was strange to see one of these bold and turbulent people meekly hammering out manillas for a parcel of pagan slave owners. The man who tended the furnace proceeded with his labours, while the Moshi stood by, grim and sullen, following the process by his ear.

The plan followed here was, evidently, first to melt down in crucibles the washings from the calabashes, and then to remelt the buttons of gold so obtained and cast the metal into bars, which were made into manillas. I was now able to watch the latter process, for the furnace man lifted out with his tongs a white-hot crucible, smaller than the one I had seen being filled, and laid it down while he felt about the floor until he found a brick-shaped block of clay. This was evidently the mould, for he now removed the lid from the crucible, and taking it up with his tongs, poured the molten metal into a cavity in the block. The Moshi then, having found the block by feeling about with his foot, turned it over, when a small bar of gold dropped out on to the floor. This he picked up with his tongs, and retreated to his place in the shadow of the pier, whence there immediately came the sound of hammering.

I was watching the furnace man prepare a fresh crucible when a light became visible from the direction of the entrance, and then two men came into view, each carrying a dish with a large shea-butter candle burning on it.

With this increase of light I was able to see fresh details, and workers whose existence had been made evident by sound only, now came into view. Thus I could see two men engaged in working designs in repoussé on small square gold plates, and another apparently modelling some diminutive object in wax—probably one of the wax models from which gold ornaments are cast—and my attention was so much taken up by these that I did not at first notice that the two men who bore the light were followed by several other persons. Presently, however, the light-bearers halted to examine the contents of a calabash in which a slave was washing the gold-bearing deposit, and then the others came up, and I saw that all the fetish-men who had visited the cavern were present and were accompanied by three strangers.

These latter at once riveted my attention.

They were dressed in handsome Kumasi cloths, or ntamas, of silk, and carried short heavy swords in leopard-skin sheaths; but the most remarkable feature was their hair, which was worked up into close sausage-like ringlets that hung round their necks in a fringe, and gave them a singularly uncouth and forbidding appearance.

I regarded these strangers with the utmost horror, for I knew that this peculiar head-dress is the official badge of the royal executioners of Ashanti, and the scene I had witnessed a few hours previously began to have a new and shocking significance.

I looked round to see if I could distinguish any of the prisoners who bore on their shoulders the fatal white mark, but the light was not sufficiently strong; but even as I looked, the horrid business commenced.

The executioners, evidently familiar with their duties, separated and began to examine the prisoners one by one, and as each marked victim was discovered he was led to a place some distance away from me and stood against a pier, where soon was collected quite a little party of the poor wretches who were thus entering upon the closing scene of their life’s tragedy.

But my attention was soon diverted very violently from these to my own concerns, for the fetish-men, bringing one of the lights with them, came and gathered round me with a dreadful air of business, and I now perceived that one of them carried a coil of stout grass rope, while another—my old enemy in fact—held in his hand an implement, at the sight of which I grew sick with horror.

It was a small iron bar, set in a wooden handle, and was flattened at the end, where it was bent over to form a sharp hook.

Without a word being spoken they set to work.

One of the men sat down upon my knees completely fixing my legs, another knelt at my head, and taking it between his knees leaned with his entire weight on my forehead, while two others sat astride upon my body, confining my arms and nearly suffocating me. Then the man with the rope passed the end under my shoulders, and was just about to draw a coil round my chest and arms, when a loud shouting arose from the further part of the cavern.

The man at my head stood up with an exclamation, and I involuntarily turned my face in the direction of the noise.

The tall Moshi was struggling in the grasp of one of the executioners, who was not strong enough to hold him, and both were shouting vociferously.

Suddenly the Moshi dragged his assailant forward a couple of paces, and stooping quickly, snatched up his hammer, and, in a twinkling, brought it down with a crash on the head of the executioner, who dropped in a heap on the floor. Then the Moshi, with a fiendish yell, rushed off, brandishing his hammer and hitting out at everyone whom he came in contact with, and, before one had time to draw a breath, he had felled two of the prisoners and was charging straight for the condemned group, flourishing his hammer and bellowing like an enraged bull. The men who were holding me, leaped to their feet and, catching up the light, they all ran off, with the exception of one who remained standing by my side.

The disturbance rapidly began to assume alarming proportions, for the Moshi, charging in among the condemned men, dealt them such blows with his hammer that those who were not killed outright or stunned, became infuriated with rage and pain, and fell upon one another with fists and teeth until the cavern rang with their yells. They became like a pack of frightened wild beasts, running hither and thither, attacking indiscriminately everyone they came near.

The other prisoners, too, alarmed by the screams and shouts, came running from every part of the cavern, and being in their turn attacked, joined in the infernal medley.

Thus the executioners and fetish-men unexpectedly found themselves involved in a seething mob of furious maniacs, all clawing, biting and tearing at one another, and growing every moment more furious and wildly excited; and to increase the confusion, the two lights were trampled underfoot and the place—except for the glow of the furnace—became wrapped in darkness.